Body Language

This is a year to R.E.S.E.T.

We are:

• Returning
• Engaging
• Serving
• Empowering
• Transforming

GOD NEVER INTENDED FOR YOU TO DO LIFE ALONE. GET CONNECTED.

In 1 Cor. 12:12-27, the Apostle Paul uses the human body to demonstrate how every person contributes something that is necessary to the life and growth of the church. In fifteen verses, Paul uses three Greek words to explain this idea of each member’s importance:

• Body (17 times) – NT:4983 soma – the body as a sound whole; from NT:4982 sozo – to save, deliver or protect.
• Member(s) (13 times) – NT:3195 melos – a limb or part of the body.
• One (12 times) – NR:1520 heis – a primary numeral; indivisible by nothing.

“You could be in the midst of a crowd and not be connected.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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EVERY CHURCH HAS BODY LANGUAGE.  OUR “BODY LANGUAGE” COMMUNICATES.

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EVERY PART OF THE BODY MUST COMMUNICATE THREE THINGS:

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YOU ARE VALUABLE

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 (NKJV)

¹²For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

¹³For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

• Because you are made in the IMAGE OF GOD
• Because God loves you
• Because you are in the Body of Christ

1. In these verses, the emphasis is on “one” (6 times in 2 verses 12 & 13)
2. Baptized – NT:907 baptizo – to immerse, submerge, overwhelm, and cover over (i.e., example: A white cloth immersed in red dye becomes red and can never be white again).

“You are part of the body because you are born again.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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YOU FIT

Because you are a MEMBER OF THE BODY – vs. 14 – 17

1 Corinthians 12:14-17 (NKJV)

¹⁴For in fact the body is not one member but many.

¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?

¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

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Because God has SET YOU IN PLACE – v. 18

1 Corinthians 12:18 (NKJV)

¹⁸But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

• God determines where each part fits.
• Set – NT:5087 tithemi – to place properly
• 1 Cor. 12:18 ESV – But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each of them, as he chose.
• Arrange (Webster) – to put into a proper order or into a correct or suitable sequence, relationship, or adjustment (Example: Assembling a desk for my home office required all the parts, put in the right place, and assembled in the proper sequence).
• Every one of them – There is not one part that God has not personally placed in the body!

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1Because of YOUR UNIQUENESS

1 Corinthians 12:19-24 (NKJV)

¹⁹And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

²⁰But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

²¹And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

²²No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

²³And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,

²⁴but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,

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Because you are DESIGNED TO CONNECT WITH OTHER PARTS – v. 25

Each part must cooperate with God’s purpose for the design of the body.

1 Corinthians 12:25 (NKJV)

²⁵that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

“You cannot determine who God puts where.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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I  CARE

1 Corinthians 12:26 (NKJV)

²⁶And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

• Suffer WITH
• Rejoice WITH

 

Note:  When we focus on individual parts instead of the body as a whole, we create a platform for division, and we fail to grow past our individual limitations!

“Some of you are nerve endings…you allow the rest of us to feel.” – Pastor Billy Johnson